Helpless parents have been moving from pillar to post for justice, however, their misery has not ended.
Akhter H Bhat
High Wings Academy of aviation and hospitality based in Uttam Nagar Delhi and run by Mr. Sandeep Kumar promises to provide job-oriented training to students in aviation sector. Inspite of its guaranteed job promises, the academy has failed to provide any jobs to its students. The Academy hasn’t even been able to provide valid certificates to the students.
Earlier the academy had conducted an entrance test held at Dream Land Public School in Janipur Jammu Disco Road in order to select candidates for different posts including Flight Stuarts and Air Hostess. The academy informed the selected through call letters and asked them to pay an amount of Rs.1,60,000 as training fee for six months . After the completion of their course, the candidates were asked to get their passports so that they could be placed with different domestic and international airlines. However, the academy has not even placed a single student till now.
“We were told we will be provided with jobs just after the completion of the course. Now, as most of us have completed the training and passed all tests and exams, the academy has denied providing us with jobs. Most of us have an extremely poor background. Our parents had to pass through all kinds of hardships in order to arrange for our fee and other expenses. We have been deceived and our dreams have been shattered by this bogus academy,” says one of the students who didn’t want to be named.
When JournoSpy contacted Mr. Sandeep on his cell, he denied having any link with the Academy. “I don’t know what academy are you talking about. I don’t run any such academies. This has to be a mistake,” said Mr. Kumar in response to our first call.
However, when we called on the academy’s landline number, the woman who received the call wanted to know more about us than simply replying to our queries.
“Which publication are you from? You should tell us the names of those students who have approached you for this,” she said. However, when we insisted on getting us the head of the academy online, she agreed but hung up just after saying yes. We again called on the same number and this time she handed it to some other guy who turned out to be the same Sandeep who had initially denied having any link with the Academy.
After admitting that he was the one who actually runs the academy Mr. Sandeep asked us to give him some time so that he could get back to us on the matter.
After a gap of 20 minutes he called up and said,
“Who are you and what do you want?”
After briefing him about the allegations made by the students of his Academy, we asked him to give his side of the story.
“Listen, those students who have approached must be the ones who have failed in the tests/exams or may be the cases of attendance shortage. A few students have not even paid their full fee. In this situation, how do you think we should have placed them,” said Mr. Sandeep.
He further promised to send us the details if we provided him with our email ID which we forwarded to him instantly.
Mr. Sandee then sent us a list of students whose admission has been cancelled. As we analyze the list, we see the academy had enough reasons to justify the cancellation. He had made it sure that he puts a reason against each student’s name to place them under some category of ‘defaulters’. Thus the students were denied of their right to job and even certificate. This is how he had been cheating his students from the very beginning.
Smelling the rat, JournoSpy asked him for the following details (mentioned in original).
1.Kindly brief us a little about your High Wings Aviation; mentioning details like when was the academy established and names of founders/co-founders/members of the board etc? (Please mention the URL of your website).
2.How many batches have passed out from your academy till now? Please mention the number of students in each batch and the number of students whose admission or right to job was/has been cancelled also mentioning the reason against each student’s name?
3.How many students have you placed in aviation sector without any third party approaches from each batch and please mention names of students you have provided with jobs under different categories as mentioned in your Ad campaign?
4.Please note that your academy promises to place students in aviation sector as Air Hostesses, Flight Stewards, Airport Ground Staff, Air Ticketing, Airport Supervisors, Airport Loaders and Retail, kindly mention students that have been placed under each category. (Batch wise: mentioning the year and job title).
In response to this Mr. Sandeep sent us some hand written letters by students whom he is providing food and shelter. Not more than five in number, these students accept that the academy is providing them with food and shelter. However, he does not answer the actual information that we had asked for.
After a brief cross check by JournoSpy, these students turned out to be his agents whom had asked to write such letters so that he could justify his stand at the moment to avoid any further intervention from the media. In return he had promised them jobs in retail.
Inspite of our repeated reminders, he did not bother to respond! This seems a case of extremely intelligent cheating. Most of the students that he had selected for the training belong to very poor families and their parents had to go through all kinds of hardships in order to arrange for the fee and other expenses involved in the training process.
“I have been getting sleepless nights since the day I came to know about this cheating. I sold three kanals of land to fulfill fee and other requirements thinking that my daughter is going to be an air hostess which was her dream. I am living a state of extreme helplessness. Now, my last wish is to get my money back and see this person behind the bars”, says the father of one of the students.
A small news article has also appeared in Greater Kashmir, one of the prominent dailies of J&K. The article can be found in their 9th April edition.
The parents have also approached Chief Ministers office for help, however, nothing has been done till now. These helpless parents have been moving from pillar to post for justice, however, their misery has not ended.